No Wal-Mart, maybe?

by Virginia Bruce,
editor

On August 7, the Beaverton City Council voted 5-0 to overturn
the Board of Design Review decision allowing the Wal-Mart store at
Cedar Hills Boulevard and Barnes Road.

The Notice of Decision, published
on August 17, cited two major problems with the development – errors
in the PacLand traffic estimates, and failure of the proposed store
to fit within the transit-oriented zoning for the site.

Wal-Mart has 21 days
from the date of publication to appeal the decision to the State
of Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA). Wal-Mart has a poor record
with LUBA, losing five of its six appealed decisions since 2003. But Portland
attorney Greg Hathaway, who has been representing the retail giant
in this proposal, said the company believes that the Beaverton decision is “legally
indefensible.”

The Notice, which is available on Beaverton’s website
(see footnote) cited 24 “Findings” that put the proposed development
into conflict with Beaverton’s goals and statutes. The Council felt
that PacLand underestimated the amount of traffic that the store
would generate, stating, “There
is no other Wal-Mart on the west side and there was testimony that
people would drive a long way to get to this one.”

The intersection,
which would have been up to eight lanes wide, was deemed to be dangerous
and would discourage pedestrian traffic. “The
sheer length/width of the pedestrian crossings…adjacent to the site
by themselves preclude pedestrian safety and convenience…Such barriers
and obstacles to the pedestrian circulation system are unacceptable
to serve pedestrians and tansit users.” The Peterkort property on the
north side of Barnes is planned to be built out as residential and
office buildings, and it was felt that the size of the intersection would
forever be a barrier to pedestrians.

Beaverton’s newest Council member,
Bruce Dalrymple, would like to see a different kind of development
at the corner. “This site may be best
served by providing multiple retail service businesses at a more
pedestrian scale. Businesses that will serve the surrounding and
developing transit station uses, surrounding neighborhoods and align more
closely with helping to resolve impacts of this transportation corridor.”

Many
Cedar Mill residents have been apprehensive of an eventual annexation
of the Cedar Mill area by Beaverton. Some of these people are encouraged
by this decision to believe that a more enlightened Council might
not make such a bad government alternative.